Virgin and Child

Entry

This Virgin and Child is a typical late-medieval mass product made from white clay, known as pipeclay, a cheap material with which batches of figures could be produced in moulds fairly easily. Pipeclay figurines of saints were generally used for private devotions.³ A very large group of moulds and misfires found during excavations in Utrecht indicates that pipeclay statues and reliefs were produced there on a large scale. For this reason, and also on stylistic grounds, pipeclay figures of saints excavated elsewhere have long been assigned a Utrecht provenance almost as a matter of course. More recent archaeological investigation reveals, however, that pipeclay figures were also made in many other towns, including Antwerp, Deventer, Kampen, Leiden and Liège.⁴ These were often based on Utrecht prototypes or moulds.⁵

In view of the place where it was found, on the site of the former convent of the Sisters of the Common Life in Diepenveen near Deventer, this Virgin and Child probably belonged to a nun there. Traces of paint indicate that the figure was originally polychromed. A fragment of a second, virtually identical Virgin and Child was excavated from the same site (BK-NM-11300). The two figurines are of a widespread type that dates from around 1425-50, known as the ‘Utrecht Virgin’ type; countless examples exist, sometimes with minor variations.⁶ The Virgin usually stands on a hexagonal foot, in which the arcades and niches could be openwork. She wears a crown on her head, regrettably missing from the pieces in the Rijksmuseum. She cradles the Christ child in her right arm and holds his left foot with her free hand. The child places his left hand on her breast and clasps an apple in his right hand. Whereas the present figurine accurately follows this ‘Utrecht Virgin’ type, the other example excavated in Diepenveen has three additional elements: a crescent moon under the Virgin’s feet, the suggestion of a fur lining in her cloak and a halo behind Christ’s head.

There are fragments of front and back moulds of this type in several places, including the Rijksmuseum (BK-NM-8530; BK-C-2018-2; BK-KOG-1272-A-1; BK-KOG-1272-A-2; BK-KOG-1272-V) and the Centraal Museum in Utrecht.⁷ Small differences between the figures and the moulds rule out the possibility that one of the sets excavated in Utrecht was used to press the two Diepenveen finds, although the one actually used may well have come from Utrecht.⁸ Given the geographical distance, however, it is more likely that they were made by a specialist beeldendrucker (statue-squeezer) or heyligenbacker (saint-firer) in nearby Deventer.

The Reformation heralded the end of the manufacture of pipeclay figurines of saints in the Northern Netherlands.⁹ In the south of the country production continued unabated. The specific ‘Utrecht Virgin’ type even enjoyed a revival there, after a late-medieval example was found in the trunk of an oak tree in Foy, Namur, when it was felled in 1609. This miraculous little statue of Notre-Dame de Foy is still reproduced in all sorts of materials to this day and sold to tourists and pilgrims (cf. BK-2005-1).¹⁰

Bieke van der Mark, 2024